He screamed "Science Diet is the best cat food"

[Zilla]

So I just had to rant about this... I work with a guy who's the son of a Veterinarian and he's been one for a long time. Today at work some how the topic of pet food came up and he asked if I fed my cats science diet. I laughed and said **** no.... And he said to me why not its the best out there. I honestly thought he was messing with me but apparently he wasn't. So I asked um have you ever read the ingredient list??!! I pulled one up and I said to him what's the first ingredient you see on that list?? Chicken by product meal. He says there's nothing wrong with it and its perfect for cats. He also began to tell me corn in the second ingredient spot was a good thing also.... I said to him corn is not digestible by cats or dogs and its known to cause allergies and its just plain un natural! I couldn't argue with him because he kept going on and on about how his dad was a vet and how he said science diet is the best out there...

This kind of blind stupidity makes me so incredibly angry. I didn't wanna say it to him but honestly vets do NOT have a degree in NUTRITION and they get PAID to sell that crap in their offices... The prescription diets may not be that bad but the regular line is a bag of cancer... haha It's the biggest hoax of the pet food industry I've ever seen in my life and every time I see someone buying that **** I wanna gouge my eyes out!! It should be illegal to sell that in a vets office because its not the best of ANYTHING.... I wish there was more we could do to educate the public on the scams out there...... Had to get that off my chest.... Anyone else agree with me?


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[rightsaidfed]

Unless someone wants to learn, there's no point. It's definitely frustrating though.

I thought Ians was the best out there when I first got my kitten just 8 months or so ago. It was what we fed our dog growing up. It was slightly more expensive than some other brands, and it was a reputable company in my eyes - people often mistake familiarity and price for reputable and quality.

Pet food preferences are like religion in the sense that you're just annoying if you try to push your knowledge on someone else if they're not willing and open to learning.

I was deferring to a friend of mine that has 4 cats and has has cats her entire life when I got my first kitten. When I told her that the food she was feeding (purina) wasn't good, she dismissed the idea at first. She then did her own research and found a better food that fits her budget. Its delicate work to tell someone that they're wrong about something they've known their entire life!


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[coyt]

Woah, awkward situation! However, if I were you I wouldn't have replied with "**** no", that's just implying that Science Diet is Bad and Everyone Should Know It's Bad. When, honestly, most people have *no* idea Science Diet isn't that good for your cat. And it's best to, as rightsaidfed put it, delicately approach the topic. If you immediately start saying "**** no I don't feed him that!" then people are going to feel insulted for their choice to use Science Diet. When honestly they were just doing what they were led to believe is the best for their cat.

If the topic ever comes up again, just politely say you've done your research and found out it's not as good as people are led to believe.

Anyways it sounds like you did the right thing by stopping the argument before it could escalate. Like rightsaidfed said, some people are steadfast in their opinions and there's little use in trying to get them to open their minds.

[Kit]

The problem I am seeing with the topic of pet food is that there's no proof for anything, just opinions. People say that corn and grains are bad, and that they cause problems - yet 90% of the food out there contains those ingredients. It's kind of like the human food issue of organic foods vs. non-organic foods...

If you go to a grocery store, a pet store, a vet office and look online about food - you will get four different opinions on what you should buy. In my opinion, this is because all pets are different! You could have a cat live to 20 on the cheapest pet food. You could have another cat have problems on cheap pet food. They're all different.

I would most likely guess that the vets recommend Science Diet since it probably has a high success rate of curing cat issues. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for them to back the product.

I think sometimes people should't be so technical about things and look at the results instead.

I don't buy Science Diet for the record - I've been researching cat food a lot lately and I find that those who stand on the side that corn/grains are bad have a VERY strong opinion about it.

[goombella]

Yes, what's really sad is the humane society that I adopted my cats from used science diet and iams. They were run on donations and there are other better and cheaper choices out there but that was the advice they got from their vets so that was what they put their money into.

[coyt]

Originally Posted by Kit

I would most likely guess that the vets recommend Science Diet since it probably has a high success rate of curing cat issues. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for them to back the product.
.

Honestly my guess is that vets recommend it because they've been told, by Hills, that it's the best food for cats. Also, they probably make more money off prescription diets (someone correct me if I'm wrong here), so that's an incentive as well. Plus, as OP said, vets do not receive nutritional training in vet school, and if they do, it's a program sponsored by--you guessed it!--Hills. So of course they're going to think Science Diet is the best food

I do agree with you though that there are some grey areas as far as nutrition goes in both the human AND pet food world.

[librarychick]

Originally Posted by goombella

Yes, what's really sad is the humane society that I adopted my cats from used science diet and iams. They were run on donations and there are other better and cheaper choices out there but that was the advice they got from their vets so that was what they put their money into.

Iams donates.their food to my local humane society. It's a very smart marketing move because when someone adopts a cat or dog the first question is 'what is it eating', so the volunteer says 'Iams!'. Sold. It's smart for them to do, and TBH there's a point where its more important that the animals are eating period, than that they're eating grain free wet food. Yeah, in a perfect world all shelters would feed raw, but there are bigger battles to win right now. JMHO.

Originally Posted by Kit

The problem I am seeing with the topic of pet food is that there's no proof for anything, just opinions. People say that corn and grains are bad, and that they cause problems - yet 90% of the food out there contains those ingredients. It's kind of like the human food issue of organic foods vs. non-organic foods...

If you go to a grocery store, a pet store, a vet office and look online about food - you will get four different opinions on what you should buy. In my opinion, this is because all pets are different! You could have a cat live to 20 on the cheapest pet food. You could have another cat have problems on cheap pet food. They're all different.

I would most likely guess that the vets recommend Science Diet since it probably has a high success rate of curing cat issues. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for them to back the product.

I think sometimes people should't be so technical about things and look at the results instead.

I don't buy Science Diet for the record - I've been researching cat food a lot lately and I find that those who stand on the side that corn/grains are bad have a VERY strong opinion about it.

There's a reason we're strongly opinionated, and its because we've done a lot of research and trial and error to get to where we are. It isn't about being technical, or being right even. It's about logically following and reacting to facts.

-wild cats are carnivores
-wild cats don't eat plants
-our cats get fat and sick when they eat kibble
-our cats get healthier on raw food

It didn't make sense to me at first either, but having 4 different vets tell me it was completely normal and nothing worth being concerned about that my cat was throwing up every day caused a serious lack of trust that put me on the right path.

If vets recommend the foods they do because they honestly believe they're doing the right thing then explain this to me:

One of my close friends has a Springer spaniel, she's 10 now and has been on 'sensitive stomach' prescription hills for most of her life. Except that it's never helped. She has horrible body odor, is overweight, has constant ear infections, dander and unbelievable shedding, she's itchy all over and has red stains on all four legs and paws from chewing on herself. Her kidneys are shutting down, and her liver values were also becoming concerning last tol.d I asked. She takes steroids every day, and has for years.
If the prescription diet is made for a dig with food allergies why isn't it helping at all? Why is the vets only alternative to the food, which is expensive bit not helping at all, givi her steroids for life? That was going to wreck her kidneys and liver and the vet knew it!

This is all completely true. My friend would love to switch the dog to a good I've suggested, but his mother refuses to do anything the vet hasn't told her to do. This is a very sweet dog who could have been saved a lot of suffering if they had switched her food earlier. As it is they probably took a couple years off her life, or at least the quality of her life.

That is why I have a strong opinion.

[3furbabies]

A science diet is pushed because that's what vets are taught is the best, and they get a nice commission on it. Hills also supplies a lot of shelters and rescues with this for free and they are told to push it on the new adopters as being the best food.

In fact when I got my two from the rescue they were on purina but the woman kept saying I should switch them to science diet. I did my research and stayed far away. It's a scam food. It's not like it is cheap, money wise anyways. Every single time I have been to the vets I have been pushed to feed all my cats and dog science diet. Everyone I know who has animals has this issue too. It's not about nutrition it's about money. I argued with my cats last vet about this too. She swore it was the best and holistic foods were about marketing and hype not nutrition. When I spouted off ingredients she said corn and by products are fine. When I said I was switching them to wet only she freaked out and said I will rot their teeth and deprive them of nutrients found in dry. I walked out and never went back when she prescribed a prescription diet for my cat who has bowel issues... When it made her worse she called me a liar and said I must be mixing holistic food with it because the prescription crap would 'cure' her.

[minikin44]

I got Science diet kitten in the kitten kit that the vet's office gave me when I got my second kitten (they forgot to give me one with the first and I forgot to ask later) but I didn't feed it... that being said, they also have a whole list of high quality foods that they give out and the places where you can purchase them in our area, and my vet did recommend feeding wet over dry, so that's something! As for the prescription diets, my dog was on one for urinary issues for most of her life and it stopped her from getting bladder stones but did not help her kidneys (I had to have her put to sleep because of kidney failure). My oldest male cat was put on dry c/d food after his urinary blockage (God help him! I didn't know for years that it was bad) and has thankfully not blocked again, but I don't credit the food. Unfortunately he's addicted to it and is giving me all kinds of grief trying to switch him to wet non-prescription food. Grr!

[hoofmaiden]

Originally Posted by Kit

The problem I am seeing with the topic of pet food is that there's no proof for anything, just opinions. People say that corn and grains are bad, and that they cause problems - yet 90% of the food out there contains those ingredients. It's kind of like the human food issue of organic foods vs. non-organic foods...

There's plenty of proof. Millenia of proof. That's how long cats and dogs (as well as wild canids and felines) have been eating MEAT. Freshly killed, raw meat, including bones and organs. There is really no need for studies to "prove" this--it's just simple fact! The closer you can get to that, the better off your animal will be. I understand that not everyone chooses to feed raw, as I do (prey model and whole prey), but the goal should be to get as close to that as possible. And Science Diet is about as far away from that as its possible to be!